As the one-and-done playoff season quickly approaches, hockey teams want to be riding on a hot streak heading in.

The Riverview hockey team is doing just that.

The Bucs have recorded two consecutive shutouts, including a 5-0 victory over the Grosse Ile Red Devils on Wednesday night in Trenton.

The old saying goes that a 3-0 lead in hockey is the easiest to lose but the Bucs showed just how much they deserved to win with big defense in the middle period.

Riverview goaltender Zach Woolcott came up big in the final minutes of the second period to keep the Red Devils off the board.

“Zach played good,” Riverview Coach Al Taurence said. “I’m really hard on my goalies. We’ve asked them to come up big and today he did. I hope that continues on.”

Senior Captain Timmy Lyons led the team in scoring with two goals and got the scoring started nine minutes into the opening period when he put one past Grosse Ile’s Thomas Rofe.

Gerald Helstowski had the assist.

After killing off a 5-on-3 late in the first period, the Bucs got back to scoring when traffic in front of the net allowed Chris Hass to snap one in, unassisted.

Taurence was pleased with the goal from Hass, his fourth of the season.

“He’s a guy that’s been with me for three years,” Taurence said. “He’s played really well defensively (and) you just need someone like him to put the puck in the net.

“That was big for him to score.”

Riverview got the scoring started early in the second period when Brandon Mulligan knocked in a rebound shot just 19 seconds into the period.

Helstowski and Brian Bachnak had the assists.

Almost a full period passed with scoring opportunities from both sides, but no goals were added.

“We’ve gotta really capitalize on our scoring opportunities, which we didn’t do that today,” Taurene said. “Brian had a few opportunities, and he’s gotta capitalize on them. When we play in regionals, they’ve gotta be goals.”

Bachnak got his goal less than two minutes into the final period, assisted by Tyler Bozynski.

With 3:35 to go, Lyons capped off the scoring with his second of the night, helped out by Bachnak and David Laurain.

Despite the loss, Grosse Ile Coach Joe Maci thought it was a good game.

“Five-on-five for two periods, we actually played pretty even,” he said. “But penalties cost us two goals early and that giveaway right at the blue line. It was 3-0 before you knew it.

“(But) what are you gonna do? Hopefully we can clean some of that up.”

The Devils had Rofe in net and the freshman did step up to make some big saves.

“But you can’t win if you don’t score,” Maci said. “So no matter how much we would have kept them off the board, if we still had a zero up there, you’re gonna end up taking a loss.

“He (Rofe) did fine, no doubt. (But) we had a couple chances with wide open net and we didn’t bury the puck. We’ve gotta do a lot more offensively against them to do what we want to do to win.”

The two teams each have one game left in the regular season; SMCC for Riverview and Woodhaven for Grosse Ile and could meet again in just a week.

The Red Devils have a bye in the first round of playoffs and should the Bucs defeat Gabriel Richard, the teams will meet again next Wednesday.

The Bucs are focusing on one game at a time and working on keeping the goals against down.

Taurence and his team will see the return of Alex Testy in their game on Monday, which will give a great boost to the offense.

The Bucs plan to skate hard against their opponents and keep it a close contest.

“What we’ve said is we want to keep the goals against down,” Taurence said. “If it’s a one goal game, I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

Maci and his Red Devils plan to be ready, should the two teams meet again.